Esoteric (label)
27 September 2010 (released)
11 December 2010
When punk hit the music scene in the late seventies, laying waste to all the ‘hippydom’ and ‘prog’ that had been the strongest elements of the English music scene that preceded it (along with Pub rock and the nascent Americana scene) there were a few bands who managed to cross over and become heroes of the modern while retaining roots to the past – Hawkwind, The Pink Fairies, Motorhead and also Here And Now. They had a spell working with Daevid Allen ex-of Gong and were very much a part of the ‘Underground’ scene of the day.
Here And Now formed at the Watchfield free festival of 1975 and while they had all the trappings of prog – synths, complex time signatures and long songs they also had elements of the heart of the punk movement – a generally anti-governmental stance, a preparedness to do it all themselves rather than relying on ‘the man’ to do it for then and real underground credentials. That their music was actually superb almost seemed unnecessary at the time. However it is that quality that ensures that they are worth listening to today and this album was released on Charly in ’79 and has had legendary status ever since.
Musically they are anything but concise but they do combine a lot of different elements to make for a very worthwhile experience.
There are passages that could have come from Genesis or Yes that lead into raw and shouted or complex improvised sections while on tracks like ‘This Time’ they develop a pounding synth led groove that could have graced the tracks of Pink Fairies.
‘Seventies Youth’ is dark and almost depressed as it expounds the problems facing the kids of the day – remarkably similar to the problems that the kids of today seem to face with lack of jobs, hope and an uncaring Government.
The longest track here is the weakly titled ‘Improvisation’ which, over eleven minutes +, manages to develop across three or four different themes and half a dozen different tempos – very non-punk, but which is utterly engrossing; it only needs a title to be rated as a great Prog track.
The three 'bonus' tracks are worthy of the release in their own right, showing the more anarchic elements of the bands music off to its best.
